Trexler Rangers "We Like It . . . We Love It . . . We Want More Of It."

August 23, 1986|by CHUCK ZOVKO, The Morning Call.

Who are we? The Trexler Rangers.

How far can we go? All the way.

What's the number one thing? Teamwork.

These cries ripple across the lake as 80 scouts, proudly decorated with mud from head to toe, gather after completing the 12 event, 2.5-mile obstacle course at Camp Trexler Scout Reservation.

Conceived three years ago by program director Greg Ritter, a senior majoring in therapeutic recreation at Slippery Rock University, the course has grown into one of the most popular events at the reservation.

"In the three years of operation," Ritter says, "there has been a perfect safety record - over 3,300 participants without one accident." The course "is to build self-confidence as a result of pulling together, to get kids to know kids, while having fun," Ritter says.

As the participants - scouts and non-scouts from inner-city youth groups - prepare to embark on the two-hour challenge, Ritter gives his Knute Rockne pep talk.

Wearing army fatigues and the traditional dark red Trexler Ranger headband, he weaves among the group, whose members vary in age from 10 to 69. He cries out, "This course is impossible to complete by any one individual, but not for a team working together."

Each obstacle is a challenge. Participants must lift each other over an imaginary electric wire (actually a string of twine), scale a 10-foot wall, crawl under a bridge through a creek, tackle the rope ladder, and finally run through the local swamp (the Swamp Tromp), where new members are anointed with mud after a huge splashing battle.

Upon completing the course, the scouts and scoutmasters sign the Rangers' honor roll and are permitted to wear the Trexler Rangers T-shirt.

The shirt, emblazoned with bold yellow letters, reads: "TREXLER RANGERS - We like it, we love it, we want more of it."